Identifying and Prioritizing Needs Prior to Your Design

Synopsis: Before you design anything new for anyone (e.g., program, service, or policy) or propose it to a potential grantor or funder, you must first make sure that your priority population needs it, wants it, and will use it. In this resource guide, you will learn how to determine those things.

Learning Objectives: After reading and learning from this resource guide, you should be able to:

1. Describe why needs assessments should always precede design.
2. List and describe the factors that have the greatest impact on health.
3. Define a “need” and a “resource”.
4. List and describe the six steps of doing a needs assessment.
5. List and describe the benefits of doing a needs assessment.
6. Explain how to use needs assessment as a means to an end.